This invention relates generally to airplane design, and more specifically, to methods and apparatus that include an architectural implementation for providing an e-Enabled environment for airline operations, including airborne operations. In particular, an e-Enabled environment is defined which accommodates a “systems of systems” view of the features which ultimately bring value to airlines, including, one or more of pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, passengers, airline engineering, airline maintenance operations, and flight crew training.
Ethernet based networking and wireless technologies have become common in homes, offices, public places, and even airplanes. In recent years, aircraft installations have incorporated a number of Ethernet technologies to help with information management. Examples of such aircraft installations include one or more of wireless connections to passenger laptops to support internet access (via satellite), wireless connections from airplanes to airports to connect on-board networks to airline networks, wireless delivery of movie content to on-board in-flight entertainment systems via the airport network, wireless connections from specific components (e.g., flight data recorders) to portable airline devices for downloading data, on-board network file servers managing Ethernet networks and providing shared resources which host airline developed applications, and use of Ethernet-derived networks for connecting together traditional avionics computers
Numerous industry forums are developing specifications and standards for aircraft installed Ethernet based networking and wireless components (e.g., ARINC 763, ARINC 664). These standards leverage off of the products being developed in non-aircraft commercial markets. The implementation and deployment challenge for incorporating Ethernet technologies on airplanes has not only been in configuring (e.g., ruggedizing) the commercially-derived components for the aircraft environment and in ensuring component and network compatibility, but has also been in defining a holistic end-to-end strategy for integrating the features that bring value to airlines.
Traditional avionics (e.g., flight management computers, air data systems, inertial data systems, flight directors/autopilots, flight deck displays, flight control computers, and maintenance computers) have been developed for decades as systems which typically include computing hardware, peripheral sensors and/or actuators, operating systems, and application software. Other airplane systems, such as the in-flight entertainment system, electronic elements of the mechanical/hydraulic systems, electronic engine controls, and other systems have similar characteristics.
Each of these airplane systems was installed onto the airplane due to the value that it provided to the airline operator. For example, flight management computer systems optimize aircraft flight profiles and reduced pilot workload. Flight control computers increase control precision and drove aircraft weight reductions. Maintenance systems track on-board failures, collect data for subsequent analysis, and reduce maintenance costs. In-flight entertainment systems keep passengers happy.
All these systems currently come with defined requirements and defined physical and data interfaces to other on-board airplane systems. Each airplane system is designed to be relatively isolated from other systems to ensure robustness, availability, and integrity. Typically, these systems are connected via industry standard or proprietary/custom networks (e.g., ARINC 429 data busses, ARINC 629 data busses, and ARINC 485 data busses). While the wiring is sometimes considered a system unto itself, this is more generally related to the physical wire and its susceptibility to damage or undesirable electromagnetic interference in the aircraft environment. The data content traversing the networks between the hardware and applications, sometimes referred to as data interface management, was generally scheduled and fully characterized prior to the system being installed on the airplane.
This airplane systems paradigm of data interface management does not apply to Ethernet based networks. The use of the open systems interconnection (OSI) reference model for conceptualizing information transference between computers has led to the decomposition and isolation of the physical, data link, network, and transport layers of the protocol stack from the session, presentation, and application layers. This has led to the development of the Ethernet based network itself as a system, providing common information delivery services to other systems, via switches, routers, and wireless connections. By extension, Ethernet servers have also become a part of the Ethernet-based network system (EbNS), as they provide common computing and data storage platforms to systems with software applications.